The Best Midrange DSLR

After dozens of research hours poring over reviews and test results for 13 different cameras, and real-world shooting with the top contenders, we’ve determined that the Nikon D7200 is the one we would buy. It gives you outstanding image quality—even in low light—fast and precise autofocus, a rugged weather-sealed body, and multiday battery life at an attractive price.

Last Updated:
Two months ago

Nikon has upgraded our top pick with the D7500, but unless you primarily shoot action sports or must have a touchscreen, the less expensive but still very capable D7200 remains our top choice.

Six months ago:
Nikon has announced the D7500, the follow-up to the D7200. The revised model offers a new sensor and processor, faster and longer bursts, a wider ISO range, 4K video, and Bluetooth connectivity—but unfortunately it loses support for dual SD cards. Read more about it in our What to look forward to section.

Eight months ago:
Ricoh announced the Pentax KP, a weather-sealed DSLR with a tilting touchscreen and a top sensitivity of ISO 819,200. You can read more about it in our What to look forward to section.

One year ago:
After a new round of testing, the Nikon D7200 remains our top midrange DSLR pick. Our new runner-up, the Canon EOS 80D, offers better performance and features for video shooters. Our former budget pick is being discontinued.

Two years ago: Canon has announced the EOS 80D, a follow-up to the EOS 70D, which will feature a new 24-megapixel sensor, an overhauled AF system with more autofocus points, and a new processor. It will be available in April for $1,800 with the new EF-S 18-to-135-mm f/3.5–5.6 IS USM lens. At the very least, it will be our new pick for videography, and we're looking forward to seeing how it stacks up against the Nikon D7200 with still images, too.

Two years ago:
Nikon announced the D500, the company’s new flagship APS-C DSLR. But it costs much more than what we recommend most people spend on a mid-range DSLR. See the Competition section below for more details.

Two years ago:
The Nikon D7200 replaces its predecessor, the Nikon D7100, as our top pick for best midrange DSLR, with the best image quality in the $1,000+ midrange category and outstanding battery life. For video shooters, our runner-up is the Canon EOS 70D, which has lesser image quality but a faster, more-precise autofocus in live view mode. If you’re willing to sacrifice built-in Wi-Fi and you rarely shoot video, our budget pick, the weather-sealed Pentax K3, is affordable and offers in-body image stabilization. For shooting action and sports on a regular basis, we suggest the Sony a77 II, which has poor battery life but allows you to shoot at a blazing 12 frames per second.

Two years ago:
Ricoh has confirmed that a small number of Pentax K-3 IIs have a flaw with their on/off switch, and has offered to inspect and repair affected cameras free of charge. See below for more detail.

Two years ago:
Ricoh/Pentax announced the K-3 II ($1,100 for just the body). Spec-for-spec, it sits very closely to the Nikon D7200. It won't have quite the battery life of the D7200, has fewer AF points, and it doesn't have a built-in flash, but it packs some other seriously neat features. See below for more detail. When we update this piece, we'll definitely give it a close look.

Three years ago:
With the follow-up Nikon D7200 now official, we need to put this piece on hold while we figure out which of the currently available mid-range DSLRs is the best option available. The D7200 adds a new processor, AF tweaks, and a better battery, so this is a minor change at best.

The D7200 is considerably more expensive than a beginner DSLR, but the extra expense will buy you a 24-megapixel APS-C camera that takes clean, detailed photos at high ISOs, as well as a professional-grade autofocus system that works in near-darkness. You also get dual SD card slots, so you’ll never have to worry about running out of storage space. This gives the D7200 a leg up on the newer, more expensive D7500 that has only one SD slot.

In the $1,000-plus midrange category, there are no bad DSLR cameras. Crisp, detailed images and easy access to exposure and shooting controls are a given. What sets the D7200 apart is class-leading output at high ISO settings, along with a well-implemented autofocus system that returns many more hits than misses, and battery life that lets you shoot for days on a single charge.

This Canon DSLR can’t quite match the image quality of our top pick, but it offers an articulated rear screen and faster, more-precise autofocus in live view mode, making it great for video shooters.

If you shoot a fair amount of video or have a few Canon lenses and don’t want to switch brands, we really like the Canon EOS 80D as a runner-up option. DxOMark measured its dynamic range as a bit below that of our top pick, so it can’t display as wide a range of highlights and shadows in a single image. But the 80D does have an articulated touchscreen as well as Canon’s well-regarded Dual Pixel autofocus system, which produces faster, more accurate focus when you’re shooting stills and video in live view mode.

Its battery life is poor, and you might balk at using an electronic viewfinder, but the a77 II lets you shoot at a blazing 12 fps and customize a wide range of video-shooting options.

If you shoot action and sports on a regular basis, you may be willing to live with poor battery life in order to get the blazing-fast 12 frames per second that the Sony a77 II delivers. This model also gives you an impressive array of video options. The fact that it has an electronic viewfinder instead of an optical one will be a dealbreaker for some people, though, and that’s part of the reason it falls below our top pick and runner-up.

Table of contents

Why you should trust me

I’ve written about cameras for The Wirecutter since 2013, am on the faculty of New York City’s International Center of Photography, and have authored two books on photography. As a journalist, I’ve reported stories for Al Jazeera, Forbes, The New York Times (now the parent company of The Wirecutter and The Sweethome), and The Atlantic.

Who should buy this

Not too long ago, the reasons for buying a DSLR were simple: A DSLR gave you great-looking, high-resolution photos and offered plenty of external controls for quickly adjusting exposure and shooting settings. Those traits still apply, but today’s best mirrorless cameras provide similar benefits in a much smaller and lighter package.

The large, bright viewfinders found on DSLRs allow you to get precise framing for your shot, even on sunny days where glare can make viewing a rear screen difficult.

DSLRs still have their advantages, though. With their lower energy use (most have optical viewfinders rather than electronic viewfinders, so they don’t have to power a bright LCD screen) and their room for physically larger batteries, you can snap many more photos on a single charge. And because DSLRs (and their analog SLR cousins) have been around for so long, you can’t beat their lens selection. From super-telephoto lenses to ultra-wide-angle lenses to specialty items such as tilt-shift lenses, buying into a DSLR system gives you an incredible number of lens choices. Canon and Nikon owners, for example, can each choose from more than 150 past and present lenses that are compatible with current and future DSLRs. And for sports and action photography, where focusing speed is crucial, the sophisticated autofocus systems of DSLRs generally deliver more keepers than most mirrorless cameras.

Should you upgrade?

Battery life can be rather poor on many entry-level DSLRs, with 450 to 500 shots on a single charge being common.

If you own a $500 DSLR, such as the Nikon D3300 or any of the models in our beginner DSLR guide, you’re already getting enough resolution for most needs, along with good image quality. Such models also make the most sense if you’re looking to upgrade to a DSLR from a point-and-shoot camera. Stepping up to a midrange model like the Nikon D7200 or Canon EOS 80D, however, can bring some important advantages. Midrange DSLRs have more-sophisticated autofocus algorithms and typically have a greater number of focus points for the camera to choose from, both of which help you better lock focus on fast-moving or small subjects.

Entry-level models such as the Canon EOS Rebel T6i and T6s also tend to have much more plastic in their body construction, which can make them more susceptible to damage if you’re not one to baby your equipment. And with the exception of Pentax models like the K-S2, weather-sealing is a feature you usually find only by upgrading to a midrange DSLR.

Battery life can be rather poor on many entry-level DSLRs, with 450 to 500 shots on a single charge being common. In contrast, the D7200 is rated at 1,100 shots, enough for you to shoot for a few days without having to charge the battery.

For compact-camera owners, one of the most noticeable benefits of moving up to the larger APS-C sensors found on DSLRs is the ability to blur backgrounds, nicely drawing attention to the main subject.

If you already own a midrange DSLR, know that they age pretty well—the improvements in a newer model tend to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. If your camera is less than three years old, you have no need to replace it. But if you have the now-six-year-old D7000, our top pick offers a big jump in resolution, much cleaner images in low light, a more sophisticated AF system, and better video specs.

Though there’s no hard-and-fast rule, we suggest waiting about four years, or at the very least skipping a generation, before upgrading to a newer-model APS-C DSLR. That’s about how long it takes for camera makers to offer significant, rather than incremental, improvements.

How we picked

After narrowing down our choices to the Nikon D7200 and Canon EOS 80D, I took both cameras out for some real-world shooting.

Midrange DSLRs sit between beginner-friendly DSLRs and full-frame models that cater to working pros and longtime hobbyists. Midrange models are rugged enough for shooting in the elements; they also have large, bright viewfinders and offer fast shooting speeds. And like entry-level DSLRs, they use APS-C sensors that are significantly smaller than those on full-frame models, which means you get a less bulky camera that’s also less expensive.

With those criteria in mind, I spent hours poring over manufacturer spec sheets and reading reviews from authoritative sources. The pool of midrange DSLRs is actually relatively small: By restricting our research to APS-C sensor cameras with primarily metal (versus plastic) bodies and reasonably current AF systems, we ended up with 12 models from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony.

Even though these cameras have a long shelf life, we were able to eliminate old models such as the Canon EOS 60D and EOS 7D. With outdated, 2009 sensor technology, these cameras have a limited ISO range and produce more noise when shooting in low light than current models. The more recently released Canon EOS Rebel T6s, while adding some advanced features to appeal to experienced DSLR users, still has a cramped viewfinder, poor burst rates, and abysmal battery life. When the Canon EOS 80D replaced the EOS 70D, we tested it as well. (You can read more details about what we cut in the Competition section below.)

Our pick

The best image quality and great battery life, in a weather-resistant body.

Nikon’s D7200 produces some of the best image quality you can find, has dual SD card slots, and offers class-leading battery life.

After poring over spec sheets and reading more than 90 expert reviews for nearly a dozen cameras, and then spending several days shooting with the top contenders, we think the Nikon D7200 is the best midrange DSLR you can buy.

First and foremost, the D7200 delivers outstanding image quality. The performance of its 24-megapixel sensor prompted DxOMark to give it the highest image-quality score of any APS-C model they’ve evaluated. Though offering the same 24-megapixel resolution as its predecessor, the D7100, this model has both a newer sensor and an updated image processor. The result is improved dynamic range (the ability to record detail in both light and dark areas of a scene), as well as cleaner images at high-ISO settings. These differences aren’t night and day, but they are enough to give the D7200 the best image-quality performance of anything in its class. Mike Tomkins at Imaging Resource notes a real-world benefit for photographers who like to display their works on the wall, saying that at ISO 100 to 200 the D7200 delivers “excellent prints at 30 x 40 inches and higher … with rich, vibrant colors and nice overall tonal depth.”

And thanks to its rugged, magnesium-alloy body with water-and-dust-resistant sealing, you can take the camera on any type of adventure to get those great images. During a trip to Colorado, for instance, I shot with the D7200 for nearly an hour in a steady rain, and the camera performed flawlessly.

Nikon has released the D7500, a follow-up model to our pick. But the D7200 is such a fully featured and high-performing camera already that we think it’s still a better option for most people, especially given that it costs about $250 less. For more information on the D7500, see the competition section.

The Nikon D7200 delivers great-looking photos right out of the box. I shot this image using the camera’s landscape picture style with no additional edits.

The D7200’s autofocus system essentially matches that of the full-frame (and much more expensive) Nikon D750, with 51 AF points that cover a majority of the image frame. Having a large number of densely packed AF points helps the camera more accurately lock and track focus on fast-moving subjects, ensuring that you get more keepers than rejects.

The Nikon D7200 has 51 autofocus points that cover a sizable area of the frame.

For even more comprehensive AF tracking, you can set the D7200 to a 1.3x crop mode. Although this setting reduces your field of view significantly, the benefit is that those 51 AF points cover virtually the entire frame. In this mode, the camera can automatically track focus on your subject no matter where it is in the frame, great for fast-moving sports and action photography.

Set the D7200 to its 1.3x crop mode, and the 51 AF points cover nearly the entire image area, letting you track subjects no matter where they are in the frame.

Regardless of the mode you’re in, those AF points are sensitive down to -3 EV (a standard measurement of light levels, around 0.3 lx or roughly full-moon illumination). This means that the camera can lock focus in especially dim scenes, as you can see in the photo below. The Canon EOS 80D matches the D7200 in low-light focus performance, but our top pick still produces images that have a bit less noise, as you can see in DPReview’s side-by-side comparison tool.

The D7200’s autofocus system excels in low-light photography. In this nighttime scene, the camera instantly locked focus on the distant tree leaves in the center of the frame even though they were only barely visible through the viewfinder.

As you might expect on a midrange DSLR, the D7200 provides a wealth of physical buttons, dials, and switches to control shooting and exposure settings. With dedicated buttons for exposure compensation, metering mode, white balance, bracketing, focus and exposure lock, and movie recording, you’ll rarely need to dive into the camera’s on-screen menus to adjust a setting. Front and rear control dials let you easily adjust aperture and shutter speed. A mode drive switch that rests beneath the shooting-mode dial lets you choose single-frame shooting, continuous shooting, or a self-timer, as well as a mirror lockup and quiet-shutter mode.

If all of that sounds a bit overwhelming, remember that a DSLR at this price is meant for people who will benefit by configuring the camera to work best for their particular style of shooting and to make exposure changes on the fly. If you want to use your camera only in fully automated point-and-shoot mode, buying the D7200 is like using a sports car to go grocery shopping. If your needs are not quite as extensive, take a look at our entry-level DSLR guide.

The 18-140mm kit lens that comes with the D7200 makes for an effective portrait lens at its telephoto end. I shot this image using the camera’s portrait picture style with no additional edits.

The optical viewfinder on the D7200 is a nice, bright pentaprism unit that offers a higher scene magnification than the one on the Canon 80D. In addition to being able to see the scene clearly, with the D7200’s 100 percent frame coverage you see exactly what the sensor will capture.

The D7200 inherits Nikon’s well-thought-out Auto ISO settings, which you can adjust to be lens specific. This is important because your choice of ISO greatly influences the shutter speed your camera will choose. All else being equal, a higher ISO lets you use a faster shutter speed. You want to use a shutter speed fast enough to avoid blur from camera shake, but that threshold varies based on the focal length of the lens you’re using—zoom lenses require faster shutter speeds than wide-angle lenses, for example. With the D7200, you can let the camera automatically choose an ISO that takes into account the actual focal length your zoom lens is set to. Use the 18-140mm kit lens at either the wide end or the zoom end, and the camera will choose an appropriate ISO setting.

Why not just manually set a high ISO and be done with it? At higher ISOs you get more noise (colored specs that show up in dark areas of the image), so you want to keep the ISO as low you can without introducing blur from camera shake or inadvertent subject blur. Thanks to Nikon’s “intelligent” Auto ISO feature, the D7200 will pick the lowest noise option it can get away with for any given lens.

The Nikon D7200 performs well in scenes with high contrast. Shooting in the dark interior of this abandoned shack, I was able to get detail in both the shadow areas and the bright outdoor scene.

With dual SD card slots, the D7200 gives you a few options for storing images. You can install two cards and set one for overflow, meaning that the camera will automatically save to the overflow card when the primary card runs out of space. Alternatively, you can write simultaneously to both cards for an automatic backup, or shoot in Raw+JPEG mode, saving each format to its own card.

Battery life is nothing short of amazing, as the D7200 is rated for 1,100 shots on a single charge—most DSLRs in this class are good for only about 600 to 700 shots per charge. Of course, real-world battery performance will vary depending on your use of flash, live view mode, video, or Wi-Fi, but in two weeks of moderate shooting I was able to go three to four days without recharging the battery; such longevity is especially useful during travel.

The Nikon D7200 delivers what DPReview confidently calls “class-leading low-light performance.” At high ISO settings you get cleaner, more-detailed images than with any other APS-C DSLR. For the comparison below, I shot the same indoor nighttime scene with both the D7200 and the Canon EOS 80D, putting each camera at ISO 12,800 and its default noise-reduction settings. The D7200 image has less color noise and shows fine image detail more clearly. Admittedly, you have to be pixel peeping to see these differences (for Web use, both images will look just fine), but if you want the most detail and the least amount of noise from your APS-C DSLR, the D7200 is king of the hill.

For the comparisons below, I shot this nighttime indoor scene, lit by a single reading lamp, with both the Nikon D7200 and the Canon EOS 80D at identical exposures using ISO 12,800 and auto white balance.

In these 100 percent crops from the Nikon D7200 (left) and Canon EOS 80D (right) JPEGs, the D7200 photo shows cleaner, more crisp detail while the 80D photo suffers from more visible smearing of fine details.

Here are 100 percent crops from the D7200 (left) and 80D (right) raw files. In Adobe Lightroom software at its default settings, the D7200 photo exhibits a noticeably more neutral, accurate white balance.

The D7200 comes bundled with Nikon’s 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Nikkor lens. Although you wouldn’t expect jaw-dropping performance from a kit lens, this travel-friendly APS-C zoom lens has a particularly useful 27-210mm focal length equivalent and built-in image stabilization, and it delivers surprisingly good sharpness across the entire frame. DxOMark calls it “the sharpest ‘super-zoom’ for Nikon DX format cameras in our database, and one of the best optical performers of its type.”

Though we like the Canon 80D better for video users, Amateur Photographer’s Callum McInerney-Riley notes video-centric features including a “flat” Picture Control setting that “provides a basis for videographers to record footage with very little in-camera processing applied, making it easier to colour grade and sharpen the footage in post-production.”

Camera makers have been including built-in Wi-Fi in their midrange DSLRs for a while now, so the nuts and bolts of setup and operation are pretty well established. Using an iOS or Android device, you can wirelessly transfer photos from the camera to the phone or tablet using the free Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility app. For example, after enabling Wi-Fi on the D7200, I simply connected my iPhone (using the Settings app) to the camera’s ad-hoc Wi-Fi network and then launched Nikon’s app. The process takes only a minute or so, although we recommend that iOS users take a few extra moments to set up a network password on the camera to safeguard access to the images. For Android users, the WPS protocol provides secure access by default.

Built-in Wi-Fi can be a handy feature. Moments after shooting this portrait, I was able to transfer the image to my phone and send my subject a copy via email.

However, the app’s remote-shooting options are extremely limited. All you can do from within the app is set an AF point, turn on the self-timer, or fire the shutter. In this regard, the Nikon app falls well behind that of our runner-up pick, the Canon EOS 80D, which lets you adjust ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation from your mobile device.

The D7200’s default color, contrast, and white-balance settings consistently provide good results. I shot this image using the camera’s standard picture style with no additional edits.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

As good as the D7200 is, it does have a few shortcomings. Maxing out at 6 frames per second, it has the slowest burst rate of any of the cameras we considered, and it falls well behind the Sony a77 II, which shoots at twice that rate.

A common complaint from reviewers focuses on the fixed rear screen. “It is a shame not to see an articulating or touch sensitive screen (or both!) though here, as that would make some aspects of shooting even easier,” writes Amy Davies for Photography Blog. Touchscreens are becoming rather common on entry-level DSLRs and can make setting focus in live view or video mode as simple as tapping the screen. And having an articulated screen like that on the runner-up Canon EOS 80D and the Sony a77 II can make shooting with the camera at waist height or overhead much more practical.

Though the D7200 offers built-in Wi-Fi, several reviewers have found the accompanying mobile app underwhelming, with no way to control even basic exposure settings. “The ‘Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility’ is very basic,” writes Joshua Waller for ePhotozine. “The app lets you remotely shoot, or view photos, and then transfer images. You can set the self-timer, but there are very few other options, and it’s disappointing that the app is so basic considering how advanced the Nikon D7200 is.”

The D7200 is a less capable camera for video than it is for stills. It’s certainly fine for casual video recording, but it falls well behind more-video-capable DSLRs such as the Canon EOS 80D and Sony a77 II. For starters, shooting Full HD video at 60 fps requires switching to a 1.3x crop mode, and as DPReview notes, “the 1.3X crop appears to come from a lower resolution capture upscaled to 1920 x 1080,” so the video quality suffers a bit. This additional crop can also make getting wide-angle shots difficult, as the field of view is significantly reduced.

Video autofocus is also much slower and less precise than with both the Canon and Sony cameras. Evaluating this model’s autofocus in live view and video modes, DPReview says that it fails to match “the impressive in-video autofocus of Canon’s EOS 70D or 7D Mark II,” calling the “fast, jumpy focus” distracting. (We’ll show you a comparison between the D7200 and our runner-up pick below.)

In live view, precise manual focus is often a guessing game, since the D7200 lacks the focus peaking (a visual aid that highlights an in-focus area of the scene) found on Sony’s a77 II. And you can’t adjust aperture settings once you’ve started recording. If you shoot video only occasionally, and primarily for things like birthday parties or family get-togethers, these drawbacks are hardly dealbreakers. But if you’re looking for an entry point for more-serious cinematic pursuits, we suggest looking at our runner-up and also-great picks.

Finally, the D7200 offers you no aperture control while recording video—you’re stuck with whatever aperture you set at the moment you pressed the record button, which can be an issue if you’re shooting outdoors and the light changes during filming.

This Canon DSLR can’t quite match the image quality of our top pick, but it offers an articulated rear screen and faster, more-precise autofocus in live view mode, making it great for video shooters.

If you plan to shoot video on a regular basis, or if you already have several Canon lenses you don’t want to replace, we recommend the Canon EOS 80D, which is a significant improvement over its predecessor, the EOS 70D. The image quality of this 24-megapixel DSLR isn’t quite as stellar as that of our top pick. You get a bit more color noise in low-light shots, as well, and DxOMark’s lab tests found the 80D to have a narrower dynamic range than the Nikon D7200, so it won’t display as wide a range of light-to-dark in a single image. Battery life, while rated at a respectable 960 shots per charge, is still short of the impressive 1,100-shot rating of the D7200. And the 80D, like its predecessor, offers just a single SD card slot, while the Nikon has two.

While the 80D doesn’t have quite as much dynamic range as our top pick, shooting in raw mode, slightly underexposing the image, and then using editing software to open up shadow areas, as I’ve done here, can help you keep enough detail in a bright background and darker foreground for a pleasing image.

In several areas, however, the 80D offers some very real advantages over our top pick. Its rear screen can tilt and rotate, making the camera easier to shoot with when you have to hold it at waist level or above your head. The screen is also touch sensitive, which makes for much easier menu navigation and much faster focus-point selection. The 80D’s large image buffer means you can shoot more raw images in a single burst (24 versus 18 on the D7200).

What really sets the 80D apart from most of the competition is its array of benefits for video shooters. Powered by Canon’s Dual Pixel AF system, the 80D offers fast, precise autofocus in live view mode (where you compose using the rear screen instead of looking through the viewfinder), a traditional area of weakness for DSLRs. When this feature debuted in the 70D (you can see it in action in the video below), Imaging Resource called it “a rare, groundbreaking innovation,” noting that “this technology finally puts true camcorder-like performance into an HD-DSLR.” A bit later, the review says that “when using live view for still shooting, the advanced autofocusing felt nearly as fast as traditional viewfinder shooting under most scenarios.” On top of that, whereas live view autofocus on the 70D could track moving subjects only while in video mode, the 80D brings this continuous-focus capability to still images as well—with good results, as DPReview reports.

Although this clip was shot with the previous-generation Canon EOS 70D, the comparison is still valid, as the 80D uses the same autofocus technology in video mode.

With Canon’s Dual Pixel AF technology (here’s a good technical explanation if you’re curious), autofocus in video mode is smooth and accurate, as you can see in the video clip above. Just as important is the fact that you can set focus quickly merely by tapping on the screen.

The Nikon D7200 uses much slower contrast-detection AF, which results in the focus wobble you see in the clip above. And because you have to move the AF point step by step by holding down the rear thumb pad, switching focus between objects located at opposite ends of the frame takes a lot longer.

Unlike our top pick, the 80D offers full manual exposure control while you’re recording video, letting you change both aperture and shutter speed during filming. In manual mode you can use the Auto ISO function, as well. The 80D offers a choice of video-compression modes when shooting Full HD footage, letting you prioritize either video quality or file size. You can also enable SMPTE time code, a pro-level feature crucial for synchronizing footage if you’re shooting the same scene with multiple cameras.

Another boon is that the EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM kit lens bundled with the 80D incorporates a stepper motor for quiet focus, so the built-in mic doesn’t pick up lens operation during filming. The D7200’s kit lens, by comparison, produces audible noise while focusing.

If you plan to shoot a lot of video, the Canon EOS 80D will be a more capable option than any other midrange DSLR.

Its battery life is poor, and you might balk at using an electronic viewfinder, but the a77 II lets you shoot at a blazing 12 fps and customize a wide range of video-shooting options.

If you shoot mostly sports and action subjects, don’t mind using an electronic viewfinder, and are willing to pack some spare batteries, we like the 24-megapixel Sony a77 II. It’s the fastest APS-C DSLR around, capable of shooting stills at 12 frames per second, twice the speed of the Nikon D7200. It isn’t quite up to the class-leading image quality of our top pick—Sony’s default JPEG rendering can smear fine image detail—but the a77 II does have in-body image stabilization to minimize camera shake no matter which lens you’re using. To get image stabilization from our top pick and runner-up, you have to splurge for a lens with that feature.

With a battery that lasts for only 480 shots per charge, you should plan on buying a spare or two if you want to make it through a busy day of shooting. One reason for the poor battery life is that the battery must power the EVF as well as the rear screen. Using an EVF is likely heresy to some DSLR shooters, who feel that it’s like looking at the world through a TV screen. Indeed, the experience can be unsettling in particularly low light, where the EVF must “gain up” to show detail, producing a grainy, noise-filled view of the scene.

But you should know that the OLED EVF in the a77 II is a very good one, with a 2.4-million-pixel resolution providing a crisp, clear view in all but very-low-light scenes. As John Shafer writes for Imaging Resource, “The A77 II EVF is one of the best I’ve used, too. Chances are, if you picked up the A77 II and put it to your eye, it would take you a few minutes to even realize you weren’t actually looking through a traditional optical viewfinder. It’s that good.” And an EVF has the advantage of previewing both the color and exposure of the final image before you shoot, so you know exactly what you’ll get.

DPReview has good things to say about the a77 II’s movie capabilities, calling it “a very robust video camera” that “holds its own in both bright and low light video shooting scenarios.” The reviewers found live view autofocus to be smooth and precise in locking on to subjects at varying distances, writing that image stabilization “does a good job smoothing out sudden movements” while shooting video, though they note that activating image stabilization crops the field of view significantly.

The a77 II has a two-hinged articulated screen that you can manipulate into a range of positions, which is handy when you’re forced to shoot from an awkward angle. It’s also weather-sealed and equipped with Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, and at 647 grams it’s one of the lightest cameras in our roundup.

The competition

The Nikon D7500 is the company’s upgrade of our current pick—but we think most of the improvements aren’t enough for most people to justify the substantially higher price, and it loses one of our favorite features of the D7200: dual SD slots. Compared with the D7200 it offers a faster burst rate (8 fps vs. 6 fps) and more precise subject tracking, which are great for sports photographers, but 6 fps is still enough for most people. You also get a tilting touchscreen, a top ISO value of 1.64 million (yes, million), 4K video and an always-on Bluetooth connection for transferring images to your phone or tablet. The dual SD card slots that we loved in the D7200 are gone, however, meaning you can no longer have an instant backup or room for overflow if you run out of space on one card. Battery life is reduced slightly in the D7500—but is still long enough that it’ll last you for a couple of days of shooting—and the megapixel count drops too, from 24 megapixels to 21 megapixels. As long as the D7200 remains available at a significantly cheaper price—as of this writing the D7500 will set you back about $250 more—we think the D7200 is a better value for everyone except dedicated sports shooters.

The Nikon D7100 remains a capable camera, sharing enough of the features of our top pick that we don’t recommend upgrading from the D7100 to the D7200. But the improvements that Nikon has made in the D7200 (including an improved sensor, better low-light autofocus, and longer battery life) mean that the new model will be able to hold its own against future DSLRs longer than the D7100 will.

Canon’s EOS 7D and EOS 60D, have been around for more than five years—fairly long even by DSLR standards. The older sensors and processors in these cameras just can’t compete with today’s technology, especially when it comes to image quality at high ISO settings.

The Canon EOS 70D has been supplanted the much more capable EOS 80D. The 70D has a lower-resolution sensor, doesn’t focus as well in low light, offers a smaller selection of focus points, gives you fewer images per burst, and can record video at only 30 (versus 60) frames per second. It also lacks a headphone jack for audio monitoring while shooting video.

The specs of the Canon EOS 7D II simply meet, rather than exceed, those of our top pick, and buying one will set you back several dollars more. The 7D II is a heavy camera, as well, weighing more than some full-frame DSLRs, including the Canon EOS 6D and Nikon D610.

The EOS Rebel T6s falls well short of our picks with a small viewfinder that provides only 95 percent coverage (which means objects will appear along the edges of the final photo that you didn’t see in the viewfinder), a slow burst rate of 5 fps, no weather-sealing, and dreadful battery life that will barely get you through a half day of shooting.

The Pentax K-3 II is limited by an imaging sensor, AF system, and burst rates that fall short of those in our main picks. It does have a pixel-shift mode that actually shifts the sensor during a four-shot image sequence to provide greater image detail and reduce noise at high ISO settings, but the need to use a tripod to get those benefits obviously limits the mode’s usefulness.

The Pentax K-70 is the first Pentax DSLR to feature hybrid autofocus for faster focusing when you’re shooting video or still images using live view. The K-70, however, has paltry battery life with a CIPA rating of just 410 shots per charge. It has fewer AF points and a lower-resolution rear screen than any of our midrange contenders, making it an easy dismissal.

Nikon’s D500 boasts an impressive 153-point AF system (borrowed from the pro workhorse D5), 4K video capability, and one of the highest-resolution touchscreens we’ve ever seen on a DSLR. The price for all of that, unfortunately, is roughly $2,500 for a kit-lens bundle, far beyond what we recommend most people spend on a midrange DSLR.

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